Harsimrat Kaur Badal addresses Farmers, FPOs, industries and public of Punjab in Ludhiana

Harsimrat Kaur Badal addresses Farmers, FPOs, industries and public of Punjab in Ludhiana

Calls upon people of Punjabto take maximumbenefits of Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojana

Ludhiana, September 12- Ministry of Food Processing Industries organized public meetings in Ludhiana in Punjab today. The key agenda of the meetings was to share the details of the Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojanaand seeking their active participation at the World Food India 2017, a mega international event being organized by Ministry of Food Processing Industries at New Delhi from November -5, 2017.The public meetings received huge response from Punjab farmers and food processing business community.

Speaking on the occasion, Hon’ble Minister said that food sector will expand three times by 2020. Through a platform like World Food India 2017, all international markets are looking at India to ‘Make In India’ for the domestic requirements as well as to source for their county and export. We aim to provide a platform to the farmers at World Food India 2017 to showcase the strength of Indian agriculture. Hon’ble minister said that under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister, the government is taking concrete steps to increase the income of farmers. Several steps have been taken by the government in this direction. While PM FasalBimaYojana has been launched to shield farmers from the perils of natural calamities, schemes likeSoil Health Card and Neem Coated Ureaare aimed at increasing soil health thereby increasing productivity of crops. Schemes like E-NAMwill provide direct selling opportunities to farmers for their produce to the customers of their choice eliminating middlemen.

Addressing the gathering, Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, said that India has vast potential in food processing sector and offers tremendous investment and employment opportunities. The Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojanais going to play an important role indoubling farmers’ income, said Hon’ble minister. Implementation of various projects under PM KisanSampadaYojana will lead to generation of over 5 lakh direct and indirect employment andwill benefit over 10 lakh farmers. Setting up of 42 Mega Food Parks alone will lead to direct employment for up to 2.10 lakh and benefit 10 lakh farmers. My dream is that every farmers gets together as self-help group/ Farmers Produce Organisation (FPOs) to progress and the time has now come for the farmers and their family to become food processors and add value to their produce.

Hon’ble Minister said that Ministry of Food Processing has issued Expression of Interest (EoI) for the three schemes namely (i) Scheme for creation/expansion of food processing / preservation capacities popularly known as Unit Scheme (ii) Scheme for creation of Infrastructure for Agro Processing Clusters popularly known as Cluster Schemeand (iii) Scheme for Backward and Forward Linkages. While last date for filing applications under Unit and Cluster Scheme is 15.09.2017, for Backward and Forward Linkages scheme last date of application is10.10.2017

She exhorted the people to take maximum advantage of the three schemes launched by the ministry and called upon the industry to participate in World Food India in a big way to turn the face of Indian food processing sector.